New Message.
From:Taylor Pierce
My pulse picks up before I even open it.
I sit forward, the room suddenly too quiet, and flip the laptop fully open.
The email loads.
Nathan,
Something just came in.
It could be nothing.
It’s a sighting in Redmond, two towns over.
Fits the description.
My fingers hover over the trackpad.
A heaviness arrives before I can name it.
I reread it. Then again.
The fog in my head evaporates all at once.
I’m on my feet before I realize I’ve stood, the whiskey forgotten on the table, the past falling away like a bad dream.
The first sighting in a long time…
Something has changed.
And whatever it is?—
It’s finally pointing somewhere.
Chapter 26
Ella
We crossed the line once.
Just once.
And I still can’t get Nathan Reign out of my head.
It’s been long enough to know it was real. Long enough to know it wasn’t a mistake. Long enough to know I didn’t imagine the way it felt, or the way he looked at me, like something in him had finally exhaled.
And then… nothing.
Not because the spark died.
I can still feel it every time we’re in the same room. In the way his eyes linger half a second too long before he remembers himself. In the way his voice softens and then tightens again, like he’s pulling something back into place.
He wants me. I’m sure of it.
But it’s like there’s a line he refuses to cross.
